The cryptocurrency trader whose ultra-leveraged Ether ETHUSD trade tested Hyperliquid’s limits

The cryptocurrency trader whose ultra-leveraged Ether ETHUSD trade tested Hyperliquid's limits

An anonymous cryptocurrency trader known for an ultra-leveraged Ether (ETH) trade that tested Hyperliquid's limits on March 12 has entered another multimillion-dollar position, this time in Chainlink (LINK), onchain data shows.

On March 14, the whale, referred to on X as "ETH 50x Big Guy," took out long positions in LINK worth approximately $31 million with 10 times leverage, according to Lookonchain, a Web3 analytics service.

The bets were placed on Hyplerliquid and GMX, two popular perpetuals exchanges, Lookonchain said in a March 14 X post. Additionally, the whale accumulated roughly $12 million in spot LINK.

In the ensuing hours, the whale gradually reduced his LINK holdings through small swaps back into stablecoins, as per onchain data.

Massive trading gains

On March 12, the unidentified trader intentionally liquidated a roughly $200 million ETH long position, causing Hyperliquid's liquidity pool, HLP, to lose $4 million. The trader's profits topped roughly $1.8 million.

According to Lookonchain, the trader has earned nearly $17 million in the past month on Hyperliquid.

The incident highlighted the challenges facing perpetual trading platforms such as Hyperliquid, which enable traders to take long or short positions many times larger than their deposited capital.

Hyperliquid said the trader's actions did not qualify as an exploit and were instead a predictable consequence of the mechanics of its trading platform under extreme conditions.

In response to the losses, Hyperliquid announced on March 13 revised collateral rules for traders with open positions to guard against similar edge cases in the future.

Launched in 2024, Hyperliquid's flagship perpetuals exchange has captured 70% of the market share, surpassing rivals such as GMX and dYdX, according to a January report by asset manager VanEck.

Chainlink, the most popular decentralized oracle service, saw the price of its native LINK token increase by more than 150% in the weeks after President Donald Trump prevailed in the US election.

It has since given up much of those gains, declining from highs of nearly $30 per token in December to less than $14 as of March 14, according to data from CoinGecko.

Chainlink's market capitalization is currently around $8.7 billion.